Mobile image capture and processing system

A Web-enabled mobile digital image capture and processing system comprising:

• (1) a document imaging and processing instrument adapted for mounting within a pickup/delivery vehicle and having
• (i) a shipping document support platform upon which a shipping document is placed for digital imaging, and
• (ii) a digital image capture and processing module supported above said shipping document support platform by a support structure, for (a) capturing one or more color digital images of the shipping document, (b) generating a digital image file with a header and a name or title for each said color digital image, (c) automatically processing and recognizing one or more bar-coded shipment tracking numbers in said digital images, and (d) automatically generating digital image files (i) with said bar-coded shipment tracking numbers encoded within the file headers of said digital image files, and/or (ii) named or titled using said one or more recognized bar-coded shipment tracking numbers;
• and
• (2) a Web-enabled mobile data collection and communication terminal, including a hand-supportable housing containing
• (i) an integrated imaging engine or laser scanning bar code symbol reader,
• (ii) a touch-screen display panel for touch-screen data entry and curser control on a graphical user interface (GUI),
• (iii) a computing platform supporting an operating system (OS), and client applications, and
• (iv) an RF-based transceiving capabilities for communicating with, and receiving digital image files from said document imaging and processing instrument via a first wireless electromagnetic communication link, and also for transmitting via a second wireless electromagnetic communication link, said digital image files to one or more image processing application servers supported on an Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network.

A Web-based mobile image capture and processing (MICAP) system adapted for use with an Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network, said Web-based MICAP system comprising:

• a hand-supportable housing;
• a digital image capture and processing engine, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for capturing digital images of shipping documents at a point of shipment pickup in said Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network;
• an imaging-based bar code reading engine for recognizing 1D and/or 2D bar-coded symbols in said digital images and generating a digital image file for each captured digital image;
• a touch-screen display panel for enabling touch-screen data entry and application cursor control;
• a microprocessor with program memory and non-volatile memory;
• an RF transceiver circuit with an RF antenna, for transmitting said digital image files to a remote application server using data packet communication techniques;
• trigger switch for generating a trigger signal;
• wherein said microprocessor and said memory provide a computing platform supporting an operating system (OS) and one or more application programs, including a Web browser program and at least one client application program responsive to said trigger signal;
• and
• wherein the function of said one or more application programs is to support (i) e-mail and/or messaging services on said Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network, (ii) client-side digital image capture and processing and digital image file transmission functions, as well as (iii) client-server based information services supported on said Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network, using wireless communication services.

A Web-enabled MICAP system for use in an Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network supporting one or more network application servers and/or a human-operated data-keying workstation and a relational database management system (RDBMS), said Web-based MICAP system comprising:

• (1) a document imaging and processing instrument adapted for mounting within a pickup/delivery vehicle and including
• (a) a shipping document support platform upon which a shipping document is placed for digital imaging, and
• (b) a digital image capture and processing module supported above said shipping document support platform by a support structure, for (a) capturing and processing color digital images of the shipping document, (b) automatically recognizing bar-coded shipment tracking numbers in such digital images, and (c) automatically generating a digital image file for each color digital image, wherein a machine-recognized shipment tracking number is encoded within the file header of each said color digital image file, and wherein each said color digital image is named or titled using said machine-recognized shipment tracking number;
• and
• (2) a Web-enabled mobile data collection and communication terminal including a hand-supportable housing containing
• (i) a bar code reading engine;
• (ii) a touch-screen display panel for touch-screen data entry and GUI curser control;
• and
• (iii) a computing platform supporting an operating system (OS), and client applications, and RF-based transceiving capabilities for receiving digital image files from said document imaging and processing instrument via a first wireless electromagnetic communication link, and also transmitting said digital image files over a second wireless electromagnetic communication link, to said one or more network application servers and/or a said human-operated data-keying workstation, for processing and recognition of shipping information which is stored in an RDBMS supported on said Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network.

A Web-based mobile image capture and processing (MICAP) system, comprising:

• a MICAP data terminal adapted for digital imaging shipping documents at a point of pickup, generating a digital image of each said shipping document, and transmitting said digital images, via a first wireless electromagnetic communication link to a base station, and
• said base station being supported onboard or located within a pickup/delivery vehicle and receiving said digital images from said MICAP data terminal, and transmitting said digital images to one or more image processing application servers maintained on a network, via a second wireless electromagnetic communication link, and
• wherein said base station further comprises:
• a first RF transceiver circuit coupled to a first RF antenna for receiving electromagnetic signals from said RF antenna within said mobile MICAP data terminal and supporting wireless data packet communication protocols;
• a second RF signal transceiver circuit coupled to said first RF transceiver circuit and having a second RF antenna and supporting wireless data packet communication protocols;
• a battery for supplying electrical power to said base station;
• an electrical power control and distribution circuit for controlling said electrical power and distributing electrical power within said base station;
• and
• a base station controller operably coupled to the first and second RF transceiver circuits, for controlling said first and second RF transceiver circuits;
• and
• a battery recharging circuit for recharging said battery.